


the gate of stars

by Ffwydriad



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Stargate SG-1
Genre: Crossover, Gen, One Shot, i wrote this instead of finals and it is Super Unedited, when is this even set during campaign one? look man i have no clue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21844051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ffwydriad/pseuds/Ffwydriad
Summary: At the bottom of a temple, Vox Machina find a strange ring carved in unknown symbols.On the other side of the Stargate, SG-1 meet some very strange people indeed.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 89





	the gate of stars

**Author's Note:**

> while not actually inspired by it, i definitely wrote this b/c of AidaHwedo's stargate/critical role fic, so go check that out. 
> 
> this is, by the way, exactly what i was doing instead of studying for finals. without procrastinating to motivate me...it's probably gonna stay a one-shot, let's be honest.

They’ve looked over the ring five times over. Vax and Vex both checked for traps and found nothing, Scanlan and Percy have done their best trying to figure out what the symbols meant, but the only insight that any of them had gotten was Percy’s notice that the thing wasn’t purely carved from stone but had some mechanical aspect to it. They all avoided it, and focused on the rest of the room, accepting that if the ring was a puzzle they were going to have solve, it wouldn’t be one they’d be able to without more clues. 

And then, of course, it had started spinning, which could only go well. 

It was slow, at least, and they all found their ways into positions behind pillars with cover, a good distance away. Hopefully whatever the effect was wouldn’t be too dangerous, but already they were tense and waiting, weapons at the ready and standing with the posture to be prepared to dodge whatever came their way. 

It erupted, then, with a splash of magic, no ill effects but then none of them were even near the field, and a portal formed in the ring, and that’s when the thing came through.

“What is that?” Scanlan whispered into the earring, quiet. He didn’t seem to draw it’s attention, thankfully.

“It looks like some kind of contraption,” Percy noted. “Whatever it was, it was definitely constructed. A very peculiar golem, maybe?”

“Should I destroy it?” Grog asked, enthusiasm ready in his voice.

“We should probably wait to see what it does, first,” Vex advised. 

“It might be friendly!” Keyleth suggests. “We could go talk to it, or-”

“It doesn’t have any obvious weapons,” Percy notes. “But it’s definitely looking around - see it’s head moving? The portal’s still open, I don’t think we want any more coming through.” 

They watched the thing carefully look over the room. It hadn’t moved too far forward, past the edge of the ring but not much farther. Mostly, it just scanned back and forth, making strange, subtle sounds. 

It was obvious that Grog was about to move, to at least do something other than wait, when the portal rippled again. They all tensed, prepared to be out-numbered, but no more of the strange things emerged. Instead, it was four humanoid figures - four humans, from the immediate look of them. 

They were dressed in strange clothes, near identical - uniforms, probably. The tallest, had a golden brand across his forehead and carried an unfamiliar staff - probably some kind of magic user - but the weapons the other three carried, while just as strange, was much more familiar. 

They didn’t look like anything Percy had ever made, but the things they were carrying were no doubt guns. Two of them were carrying larger weapons that looked like Bad News, but shorter, more solid, and all in a dull black metal. They weren’t be held up, instead laying flat across their chests, but their hands rested on the strange rifles, ready to be raised and fired at a moments’ notice. All three of them had what were clearly pistols strapped onto their legs, though, just as quickly drawn. 

Not even risking speaking through the earrings, Vox Machina all shot glances at each other. These people weren’t obviously threats, yet, but they were clearly dangerous. They watched, as the four figures moved down the ramp, and the portal flashed shut behind them.

“Clearly some sort of temple,” the one without the rifle said, moving over to glance at some of the inscriptions on the walls. “Although it’s not Goa’uld design. Or Ancient. I don’t recognize this language, actually.”

“It’s Celestial,” Keyleth says, stepping forward from behind cover. All four figures eyes are on her, and their weapons were instantly raised. 

“You’re going to want to put those down,” Vex says, stepping forward with her bow drawn. Grog then stepped forward, axe in hand, which caused all of their eyes to open wide. 

“Put yours down first,” the man in the front said. “We’re not looking for a fight.”

“Yeah, but I kind of am,” Grog says. “This temple’s been really boring. We’ve barely fought anything.”

“We’re not looking for a fight either,” Keyleth says. “I mean, they’re adventurers, not monsters, and they seem friendly enough.”

“I do make it a rule not to trust anyone with guns,” Percy points out, stepping out from behind cover as well. He’s not aiming his gun towards them, but he has it in hand.

“Says the man with the gun,” the man points out. 

“No, no, he makes it very clear we’re not to trust him either,” Vex says. “Put your weapons down before we tell Grog he gets to have his fun today.”

Grog smiles, widely, and the staff and guns are lowered, but not put away. Grog sighs, but drops to a more relaxed pose, and Vex let’s her bow drop towards the ground. 

“You called the language here Celestial,” the unarmed man said. “Does that mean you can read it.”

“I can,” Percy says. “Although, I’m much more interested in hearing about where you came from, what that is, and where you got those guns.”

“We’re peaceful explorers from a planet called Earth,” the man continues. “The device we stepped through is called a Stargate, and it’s a wormhole that connects other planets.”

“Planet, not plane?” Keyleth asks. “Like, a whole different world?”

“Yes,” the woman says. “The Stargate creates basically a tunnel through space to other worlds, allowing for instantaneous travel.”

“And these are standard issue weapons,” the man with the gun said, looking over at Percy. “Although, you’re probably some of the first people we’ve met who have them as well.”

“I don’t know if that’s comforting or disconcerting,” Percy says. “Well, it’s good to know that these aren’t Ripley’s doing, unless some sort of time manipulation is involved.”

“It might be Orthax, though?” Keyleth suggests.

“No, no, the designs were my own. He just, well, motivated me.” Percy waves a hand. “I don’t think he’d ever seen anything like them before, so he clearly wasn’t too well travelled.”

“You invented these?” the unarmed man asks, looking at him with a new, curious look. “That’s fascinating. Jack, we’re looking at a culture on the verge of developing firearm technology. This could be groundbreaking research.”

“Oh, good, they’re scholars,” Scanlan says dryly. “You sure we can’t just kill them?”

“Scanlan! We don’t just kill people!” Keyleth calls out.

“We kind of kill a lot of people,” Grog points out. “I mean, more monsters and dragons and stuff, but-”

“We kill bad people!” Keyleth says. “And they’re not bad people. Probably.”

“I’m going to put a second on ‘not bad people’,” the man with the gun says. “Peaceful explorers. That’s us.”

“You said you could read Celestial,” the scholar interrupts. “I don’t suppose you could tell me anything about what the writing here says.”

“It’s not the most coherent,” Percy says. “Pre-divergence, a great deal of warnings, the text isn’t quite clear if it’s talking about sealing a great evil away or providing some sort of escape route. Which makes sense, if what it’s guarding is a portal.”

“Pre-divergence?” the scholar asks. “What does that refer to?”

“It means it was before - well, hard to say, it may have been constructed during - the Calamity,” Percy says. At the four blank stares, he continues, “before the divine gate was constructed, and the gods were sealed away.”

“That might be referring to the Stargate,” the woman says. “Sealing away the Goa’uld?”

“If your ancestors were able to seal away the false gods, then they were mighty indeed,” the staff-wielding man says. 

“I think you’re a little bit confused,” Vax says, and they turn around to where he’s sitting behind them, perched on one of the short pillars at the end of the portal ramp. “We’re not talking about monsters or anything that could come through a portal. We’re talking about gods. Big mystic fuckers, grant you magic powers if you believe in them enough, bring you back from the dead?”

“The Goa’uld do all those things,” the scholar points out. “Not that we think your gods might be Goa’uld, but they are known to grant powerful technology, and they have used sarcophagi to bring back their servants.”

“You’re not magical at all, are you?” Percy notes, tilting his head. “You’re from some sort of entirely technology based society. That’s fascinating.”

“There’s a phrase on our world, that any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic,” the woman says. 

“I’d like to see your clockwork do this,” Vax says, and throws Whisper across the room. The four duck, somewhat startled, only to look up and see Vax’ildan standing across the room. He waves at them. 

“Well, if we want to show off,” Vex says. “Trinket, you can come out buddy,” she says, and Trinket emerges from her necklace. She then grabs the broom, whispers the word of power, and has it rise upwards to the ceiling. 

“I mean, I don’t really want to waste spells, but,” Keyleth does a quick druidcraft, growing flowers from her hands. “Scanlan?”

“I’m not wasting my magic trying to prove to some weirdos that we met in a temple that it’s not science,” he says. “Although, I don’t know, I would love one of those guns.” 

“You are not getting a gun,” Percy says, sharply. 

“These aren’t even yours!” Scanlan says. “They can give them to whoever they want!”

“Yeah, we’re not giving guns to children,” the armed man says. “Even if they’re magic.”

“Who are you calling a child?” Scanlan asks. “I’m a gnome! Just because I’m small doesn’t mean I’m not-” he throws a wink towards the woman, “mature.”

“It could be science?” she says. “The ancients were capable of doing some incredible things that seemed like magic.”

“I think we’re safe to just call it magic and move on,” the man says. “But if they’re as powerful as the Ancients, then they’ll probably make powerful allies. So, why don’t we get out of here, and maybe have a talk?”

“I doubt we’re going to get anything more out of this temple,” Vex says. “Back to Whitestone?”

“Not just yet,” Percy says. “Not being an immediate threat doesn’t mean they’re trustworthy.”

“We can just head out of the temple,” Keyleth says. 

“All the traps are disarmed,” Vax says. “Well, I mean, except for the one with the-” they all wince, just a little bit. “I guess we can find out whether our friends are half as skilled as they look.”

The three with the guns all look more than a bit hesitant, but the staff-wielder smiles. “We welcome the challenge.”

“That’s the spirit!” Grog exclaims, slamming a hand into the man’s back. 

“Well, I guess if we’re not killing you, we might as well get to know each other. Scanlan Shorthalt, I know, it’s a pleasure to meet me.”

“Colonel Jack O’Neill. I’m the one in command here.”

“Major Samantha Carter,” the woman says. 

“Teal’c,” the man with the staff says. 

“And I’m Doctor Daniel Jackson,” the scholar says. 

“A doctor? Of medicine?” Percy asks. 

“Of archaeology, actually,” he says. “And anthropology. And linguistics.” He shoots a glance over at the woman, Major Carter. 

“I’m also a doctor, of astrophysics,” she says, and it’s clear they’re both looking at the group - and specifically Percy, to gauge reactions. 

There’s a moment of silent staring, and then Vex cuts in. “I’m Vex’ahlia,” she says. “And my brother, who’s already run up ahead, is Vax’ildan.”

“I’m Keyleth, of the Air Ashari,” Keyleth adds. “Are you going to do the name thing? Like the-”

Percy opens his mouth, to retort, but instead turns to look at the group that had come through the portal. “And I’m Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the third, Lord of Whitestone, and if astra-physics is anywhere near what the name suggests, I think we very much might be interested in working out some kind of trade arrangement.” He smiles, gesturing to the stairs that lead up and out of the lowest tier of the temple. “Shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> i'm @malaismere on tumblr so please come by and yell at me about percy and vox machina dealing w/ stargates


End file.
